<6r>

Sr

The Hypothesis of deriving the frame of the world by mechanical principles from matter eavenly spread through ye heavens being inconsistent wth my systeme, I had considered it very little before your letters put me upon it, & therefore trouble you wth a line or two more about it if this come not too late for yor use. In my former I {represented} that ye diurnal rotations of the Planets could not be derived from gravity but required a divin{e} power to impress them. And thô gravity might give the Planets a motion of descent towards the Sun either directly or wth some little obliquity, yet the transverse motions by wch they revolve in their several orbs required the divine Arm to impress them according to ye tangents of their orbs I would now add that the Hypothesis of matters being at first eavenly spread through the heavens is, in my opinion, inconsistent wth ye Hypothesis of innate gravity without a supernatural <6v> power to reconcile them, & therefore it infers a Deity. ffor if there be innate gravity its impossible now for the matter of the earth & all ye Planets & stars to fly up{illeg} from them & become eavenly spread throughout all the heavens without a supernatural power. & certainly that wch can never be hereafter without a supernatural power could never be heretofore wthout the same power.

You queried whether matter eavenly spread throughout a finite space of some other figure then spherical, would not in falling down towards a centrall body cause that body to be of the same figure wth ye whole space, & I answered, Yes. But in my answer it's to be supposed that ye matter desends directly downwards to yt body & that that body has no diurnal rotation. This Sr is all that I would add to my former Letters. I am

Yor most humble Servant

Is. Newton

Cambridge.

Feb. 11. 1693.

<envelope>

For Mr Bently at the Palace in

Worcester.

A 3d Letter from Mr Newton

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Professor Rob Iliffe
Director, AHRC Newton Papers Project

Scott Mandelbrote,
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